DayZ Update Video Features New AI, Handcuffs, Object Damage

There are a lot of new features coming to the DayZ standalone. The video is just under half-an-hour long and is extremely detailed and information-related. There are also some mechanics in place to ease up on the kill-on-sight mentality that eventually took over the original DayZ mod.

Early on Dean talks about still waiting on the network architecture bubble to finish on up and that the team is still making changes while they wait for the network code for multiplayer to finally tidy up.

The video first covers the item inventory system, and how players can swap in and swap out items with ease. It's basically replacing the niche system of Arma with a kiddy-friendly system that most people have affinity with from other MMOs or whatnot.

The most interesting thing about the item setup are some of the new items, including holding items. Now this may not sound like much, but when you see that Dean pulls out some handcuffs and then, for some odd reason, subdues and handcuffs Anita Sarkeesian. You can see how a whole new meta-game can start up with having people surrender, handcuffing them and capturing them. Heck, you could plan rescue missions around a mechanic like this, or even better, shoot a bandit in the kneecap, subdue the bandit, handcuff him and then drop him off in a zombie infested area with no weapons. That's like some Walking Dead stuff right there.

And just to show that Mr. Hall isn't a typical sexist pig, he also takes out some ballistics frustrations on a rough and tough alpha male, shooting him up and showing how the new item degradation system, which is pretty cool and very similar to Far Cry 2, but not quite as annoying. Unfortunately, Dean doesn't get kinky with the alpha male the way he did with Anita, and avoids the whole handcuffing bit... although I'm sure quite a few people would have enjoyed that.

Beyond the new S&M mechanics, DayZ now offers magazine management, so just like Jagged Alliance 2 you can micromanage your bullets and put them in appropriate clips for a weapon magazine. This also adds a bit of Metro: Last Light bullet-bartering appeal to the new system, as players who have various-sized bullets but no weapon to use them with, will be likely to barter or trade them off for something useful. I like that mechanic a lot.

Dean also talks a bit about overhauling the zombie AI... now he's thinking about leaving the AI out of the initial alpha until the new zombie AI is complete. I say to keep the old AI system for now until the overhaul is complete and then implement the new overhauled AI after it's tidied up. Dealing with retard-zombies for a short while during the initial alpha is a-okay with me.

Last but most important is the network architecture (because some people have a problem with the word infrastructure), and “Rocket” makes it clear that it's the final piece of the puzzle that the whole team (and gamers) are waiting on. They want to boost it beyond 50 players per server and maintain it at 150 players per server shard to maximize the DayZ-ness. I think the more the merrier... besides, 50 players is peanuts and APB: Reloaded has about 100 per shard, so they'll at least need to bring it up to par.